Renee Prajer

Congratulations to Renee Prajer!

Renee has been honored with the University’s Excellence in Experiential Education Award. This award is presented by the University to a faculty or staff member that has demonstrated a commitment to excellence in Experiential Education.

Renee completed the UNH fall Service-Learning Scholars program in 2009 and it was evident that she had been including experiential education into her curriculum long before becoming a Service-Learning Scholar. Renee saw value in developing her curriculum to provide students with the best experiential education possible. Renee has seamlessly incorporated service-learning pedagogy into three of her courses. She works diligently to craft strong syllabi and they have been submitted for consideration on the national Campus Compact’s website for service-learning syllabi. Renee’s enthusiasm to continuously enhance her teaching demonstrates her commitment to student learning and how deeply she cares about students’ learning experiences. Her recent and upcoming course offerings include:

Summer 2010

DH 426S Internship South Dakota Lakota Nation

DH 468S Senior Project South Dakota Lakota Nation

Fall 2010

DH 350S Dental Hygiene Concepts IV

Approved for Summer Session I 2011

DH 462S Internship North Carolina Cherokee Nation

DH 468S Senior Project North Carolina Cherokee Nation

Approved for Summer Session II 2011

DH 462S Internship Arizona Navajo Nation

DH 468S Senior Project Arizona Navajo Nation

Renee connects the classroom to the community by having students critically reflect on their coursework and service projects. She designs structured reflection questions for her students to respond to so that they can discover, explore, and evaluate the relationship between what they are learning in the classroom and their experience in the community.

Renee is open to sharing her pedagogical styles with peers and has enhanced UNH’s reputation as a leader in experiential education through national presentations and publications including:

Renee has also completed the required courses to become certified in Experiential Education through UNH’s partnership with NSEE Academy Spring 2010.

Dental Hygiene student serves the Cherokee nation in North Carolina as a part of Renee Prager's summer session one courses.

This summer Renee will be in North Carolina and Arizona teaching service-learning classes. Renee will travel with UNH students to provide free dental care to low-income and underserved Cherokee and Navajo populations so that her students can experience a new culture, learn about themselves and others, be civically engaged, and practice the skills they’ve been learning in the classroom. Renee will help her students to understand the needs that exist outside of the Greater New Haven region and to understand the needs that exist regardless of boundaries. It takes a very special person to dedicate this amount of time to engage students in an experience they will always remember. She inspires, motivates, and encourages our students to use their experiences to help them develop as professionals and as contributing members of our society.